erronéevserronéesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: erronée is a verb, erronées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“erronée” is a verb and “erronées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,196
“erronée” frequency rank
#23,858
“erronées” frequency rank
42054
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erronée erronées
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de erroner. Féminin pluriel de erroné.

Same sound, different letters: erronée vs erronées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. erronée runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against erronées's 8 (VCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
erronée
8 ch
erronées

Same sound, different spelling - erronée / erronées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: erronée and erronées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛ.ʁɔ.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “erronée” sits inside “erronées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erronée is recorded at frequency rank #18,196, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ.ʁɔ.ne\. erronées is at rank #23,858, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.ʁɔ.ne\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42054, this pair ranks #228,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of erronée vs erronées

Shared letters: enoré. Private to "erronée": -. Private to "erronées": s.

"erronée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "erronées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "erronée" and "erronées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "erronée" is a verb and "erronées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "erronée" vs "erronées" - which ranks higher?
"erronée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,196 in our French list, against #23,858 for "erronées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "erronée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erronées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erronée" and "erronées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erronées vs erronés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #228,558 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list